Term risk averse Definition: A person who values a certain income more than an equal amount of income that involves risk or uncertainty. To illustrate, let's say that you're given two options--(A) a guaranteed $1,000 or (b) a 50-50 chance of getting either $500 or $1,500. If you chose option A, then you're risk averse. Both options give you the same "expected" values. In other words, if you select option B a few hundred times, then your average amount over those few hundred times is $1,000.